Health
Tampons Contain Toxic Metals Lead and Arsenic, Researchers Find
- Study tested 14 different brands across US, UK and Europe
- Authors say this is first time metals were measured in tampons
Researchers found more than a dozen metals, including lead and arsenic, in widely available tampons in the US and Europe used by potentially millions of people.
Lead was found in all 30 tampons tested from 14 different brands, according to the study published this week in the journal Environmental International. Lead exposure can cause neurological damage. This is the first paper to measure the concentration of metals in tampons, said Jenni Shearston, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health and the study’s lead author.